Julie Hudson is Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs for Medical Center Relations at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her role involves the integration of Vanderbilt’s strategic brand into the community. She has oversight of sponsorships, Medical Center and Marketing Outreach Special Events and VUMC Arts in the office of the Vice Chancellor. She serves as a point person in the Vice Chancellor’s office for external relations including local organizations, foundations, government and international efforts. Hudson is also Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, and prior to her appointment in the Vice Chancellor’s office, practiced fulltime at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt as a pediatric anesthesiologist.

Hudson is Executive Director of Aspirnaut™, a K20 STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) pipeline that partners a research university with rural K12 schools to increase STEM achievement and the number and diversity of students entering the STEM workforce. A team of university faculty and students, in partnership with teachers in rural schools, uses broadband technology to “beam” hands-on, inquiry-based STEM labs through weekly videoconferences to rural elementary and middle school students in Arkansas, Maine and Tennessee. Exposure to basic science research, professionals, and careers in the STEM workforce is provided through residential high school and undergraduate summer research internships as well as onsite visits by elementary and middle school students to universities and labs. The program is in its seventh year and has impacted over 2,000 students.